I saw these bars at Scheller’s Harrodsburg Road location here in Lexington, Ky. They are selling them for $15.99. (In comparison, a new set of Nitto mustache bars will set you back at least 50 bucks.)

Adding to the coolness factor, locally at least, Wald is located right here in the bluegrass state — in Maysville. Wald has been around since 1905, when two brothers found success in Wisconsin by making and selling a tire-repair tool. They moved their operation to Kentucky in 1924. Wald’s Web site has a great page describing the history; the black and white picture in this post is from that page.

Wald is perhaps best-known for its baskets, which have an excellent reputation. I have never used a basket myself, but they fit nicely with any philosophy of practical cycling. (Incidentally, here’s a guy working on bags to fit in Wald’s baskets.)

But I digress …

I have a great Raleigh Super Course (from 1976 — in emerald green! Thanks for scanning the catalog, Sheldon, RIP!) that I hadn’t been riding much. I’d had it set up with flat bars and thumbshifters.

I was thinking of converting the bike to a single-speed, but I was daunted by the price and/or logistics. After seeing the Wald bars, I decided to reconfigure the bike, and leave the gearing alone.

In a moment of trying to be cool, I installed the bars upside down. After riding the bike on several commutes I decided to leave them that way, and added some cork handlebar tape from Nashbar (this stuff is a killer deal at $5.99 per bikesworth, by the way.)

Wow, what a difference. The bars transformed the bike!

The Wald bars offer three great places to rest the hands: On the ends; on the bends; and next to the stem. I find that I get a most comfortable fit by gripping the bends.

I think the bars work so well because of this diversity of hand-placement options, and because the rise of the bars (or the drop, if you install them like I did!), combined with the spread, is just right.

But don’t just take my word for it (although you should, of course!). Jim Almgren, excellent mechanic at Scheller’s says he’s selling a good number of these bars to people who are unhappy with the way their bikes’ fit, and he’s getting great feedback.

Jim also has some of these bars on his singlespeed, and he likes the way he can get leverage while climbing by gripping the bars at the ends.

Some of you might have tried mustache bars. The Wald bars don’t extend as far forward, and they sweep back further.

I can’t vouch for them being lightweight, since I don’t know or care about that.

These are not widely available online, although I did find them here (can’t vouch for the seller), but your local bike shop can probably order them.

Very highly recommended.